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Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Recorded Music Catalog to Warner Music Group for More Than $300 Million
Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group via WMG's $1.2B joint venture with Bain Capital for over $300M.
Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group for in excess of $300 million, the band and WMG’s $1.2 billion joint venture with Bain Capital confirmed to Billboard.
The transaction lands amid a broader rush for legacy catalogs that has reshaped how veteran acts monetize long-term streams and catalogue value. According to Billboard, the group began quietly shopping the recorded-rights package in February 2025, with sources saying the band had been seeking up to $350 million. At the time, insiders suggested a deal with WMG was likely, though cash had not yet changed hands.
(L-R) Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers are seen backstage at the 2022 MTV VMAs at Prudential Center on August 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global
Billboard reports the band owns 13 studio albums and other releases that were issued by WMG in the U.S., and that the first four studio albums — originally released by EMI in the U.S. — were also included in the sale, though details remained unclear about territorial splits. It is likewise unresolved whether the deal extends to the band’s name, image and likeness rights.
Estimates published by Billboard last year put the Red Hot Chili Peppers master catalog at roughly $26 million in annual revenue, with the lion’s share coming from the portion of the catalog tied to WMG. That part includes perennial bestsellers like Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication, records that continue to drive sync, streaming and catalog sales.
The Hollywood Reporter was first to report that the sale had finally been executed on Friday (May 8), after WMG disclosed that the Bain joint venture had already acquired $650 million in recorded-music and publishing catalogs. The Hollywood Reporter
This move arrives five years after the band sold their music publishing catalog to Hipgnosis for an amount reported between $140 million and $150 million. Sources say both the publishing assets and the recorded-music catalog were shopped by law firm Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobster Younger & Light.
WMG declined to comment on the specifics of the deal. Eric Greenspan, the lawyer who had been handling the sale process, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
For the Chili Peppers, the sale completes another chapter in a long rapprochement between classic rock-era catalog value and modern corporate investment. It also raises familiar questions: how legacy artists balance cashing in on decades of cultural capital against retaining control of their recorded output, and how much future revenue can be rationalized into one definitive price. The sum here — above $300 million — sits within the high end of expectations the band set in public reporting earlier this year, and marks another notable acquisition for the WMG-Bain vehicle as labels and private equity continue to carve up ownership in the streaming age.
